Central Park Summer— Manhattan Oasis

Central Park occupies 6% of Manhattan's total acreage, and is located between Fifth and Eighth Avenue and 59th and 110th Street. In 1853 when the City of New York bought the 843 acres that would become Central Park, it was a far away place between New York City and Harlem. Converting the swamp land into the park took more than fifteen years, 20,000 workers, hundreds of thousands of planted trees, and three million cubic yards of dirt.

The Bethesda Terrace Arcade is the underground passageway to and from Central Park's Bethesda Terrace.
The main feature of the Arcade is the Minton tile Ceiling. It is the only known example of Minton encaustic ceramic tiles used in a suspended ceiling.
The Arcade was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. The ceiling is made up of 15,876 elaborately pattered encaustic tiles, which were handmade by Minton and Company—a leading 19th century manufacturer in Stokes-on-Trent, England.
Completed in 1869, the Arcade was completely restored in early 2007. In January 2009 four vandals were caught defacing the restored Arcade with spray paint graffiti requiring a reported $100,000 to repair the damage.

Water Clouds
It is hard to believe the Turtle Pond was not part of the original Central Park design. It is located at the base of Belvedere Castle, and is a watery complement to the Great Lawn. The Great Lawn was also not original to Central Park. The Great Lawn began life as the Croton Reservoir and was filled in with building rubble from Manhattan in the 1930s.

Central Park Yacht Club
It was here that Stewart Little piloted his brother George's boat the "Wasp" to victory in the Central Park Boat Race. Racing regatta's are held between members of the Model Yacht Club at the site of the Conservatory Water.
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, builders of Central Park, planned a huge conservatory on the east side of the park. However during the original construction, city budget cuts forced rethinking the original plans. Instead, they created a shallow pond inspired by the model boat ponds of Paris, France.

Bethesda Fountain-The Angel Of The Waters
The fountain, designed by Emma Stebbins, was unveiled in 1873 and is the only sculpture commissioned as part of the original design of Central Park. Ms. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a commission for a major work of art in New York City. The winged female figure symbolizes the purity of the citys water supply when the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842 bringing fresh water to all New Yorkers. In her hand she holds a lily, the symbol of purity, and extends her other hand outward to bless the water below.

Strawberry Fields—New York City
Strawberry Fields was named in 1981 by a New York City Council law introduced by Councilmember Henry J. Stern and signed by Mayor Edward I. Koch. The black and white mosaic, just inside Central Park at 72nd Street, was fashioned by Italian craftsmen and given as a gift from Naples, Italy. A nearby bronze plaque lists the 121 countries that endorsed Strawberry Fields as a Garden of Peace.
Rarely a day goes by without a remembrance appearing on the mosaic.

Ice Cream
So great is the demand for pretzels and sodas, a company bid a total of $536,100 in a New York City Parks Department auction for the right to have a pushcart for a year at two choice spots in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Within Central Park, a pushcart can sell $4,000 a day in food and drink. Some carts gross more than $400,00 a year.

After The Rain
In 1853 when the City of New York used the power of eminent domain to obtain the 843 acres that would become Central Park, it was a far away place between New York City and Harlem. Converting the swamp land into the park took more than fifteen years, 20,000 workers, hundreds of thousands of planted trees, and three million cubic yards of dirt.
More gunpowder was used to blast away the rocky outcrops than was used at the Battle of Gettysburg.
There are 8,968 benches, 36 pedestrian bridges, 29 sculptures, and 1 zoo in Central Park.

The original Gapstow Bridge was built in 1874 and was a unique wooden bridge with ornamented cast iron railings. However, it only lasted slightly more than twenty years before wear and tear took its toll. That bridge was replaced in 1896 with the present simple stone structure. During the summer months, the bridge is covered with green ivy.

Nighttime in the Park
The lampposts in Central Park have a code on them identifying the location in the park.
The first two digits are the nearest cross street. The last two digits indicate east and west. An even number means closer to Central Park West, an odd number closer to 5th Avenue.

Timeless—Cleopatra's Needle
There are three Cleopatra's Needles. London, Paris and New York each have one.
However, Cleopatra's Needle actually has little to do with Cleopatra. It was built around 461 B.C. by Thutmosis III as a tribute to himself. The inscriptions were added 200 years later by Ramses II to commemorate his military conquests.
Cleopatra moved the obelisks to Alexandria where she built a temple in honor of Mark Anthony.
The obelisks were toppled by order of Augustus Caesar, and lay buried in the sand for centuries.
On July 20, 1880, a ship carrying the obelisk, as a gift from Egypt after the opening of the Suez Canal, arrived in New York City. Using a special railroad track, it took 16 pairs of horses four months to move the obelisk to its Central Park resting place behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Resting Place
The cast iron lampposts found throughout Central Park were designed by Henry Bacon, the architect who also designed the Lincoln Memorial.

Behind the Fence—The Sheep Meadow
Thousands sunbath where sheep once grazed.
In 1934, Robert Moses had the sheep removed from Sheep Meadow, under the guise of health reasons. This ended the presence of sheep in Central Park after 60 years.
The sheep and a shepherd were housed in a fanciful Victorian building - part of what once was the Tavern on the Green restaurant – on the western perimeter of the Park.
Twice a day the shepherd stopped traffic on the west drive so that the flock could travel to and from their meadow.

Rest Stop
Just east of the stone steps leading down to Bethesda Terrace in
Central Park, there is a little noticed footpath meandering north
through the trees and shrubs. The footpath leads to a wooden bench,
which sits on the crest of a knoll hidden among the trees. Although
hundreds of park visitors can be observed around Bethesda Fountain
and on the walkway along the lake, few ever venture up the lesser-
traveled path to discover the waiting bench.
What they miss is a secret resting place to hear the melody of the
birds, see the squirrels scamper about, and smell the fresh scent of
pine in the midst of New York City.

East Side Reflection
Half of all Central Park visitors enter through the southeast corner by way of the Grand Army Plaza. In 1858 the designers of Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, placed the pond below street level to offer an instant haven from city noises.

Opposing Benches
The designers of Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, saw the Concert Ground as a central place, the point where the Mall and Bethesda Terrace met. An ornate cast-iron Bandstand originally stood to the side of the Concert Ground.
The original bandstand was replaced in 1923, and the Concert Ground was expanded. Today, the open area is a popular gathering place for rollerbladers.

Floating Buildings
Conservatory Water gets its name from the large glass house intended for the tropical plants specified in the guidelines of the 1857 design competition for Central Park. However, a lack of funding prevented the building of the conservatory, and instead the area was turned into an ornamental pond.

Pedestrian Bridge
There are thirty-six bridges and arches in Central Park.